Anatomic Therapy

128. THE MIND AND THE BRAIN

We all have a mind as well as a brain. But many of us do not know the difference between the two and what these two things do. Now we will see about these. By knowing this, we can keep our body also healthy. This is because we already know that there is a connection between the mind and the body.

Our mind is like a keyboard or a piano. If we keep our fingers on a piano and press, it makes sound. If we press once, it makes one sound. Once a sound comes from it, what should we do to stop that sound? Nothing! If we do not do anything and just keep quiet, the sound will stop. If we try to stop the sound that has come by pressing the piano again and again, the sound will come again and again.

If we understand this we can easily understand the mind. The sound called thought comes from the piano called mind. If there is a mind, some thoughts will keep coming from it. If we do not do anything to a thought which comes from the mind, that is, if we do not mind it and ignore it, that thought will disappear on its own.

In this way, many bad thoughts such as anger, fear, tension, envy and also many good thoughts also come in our mind. If we do not mind these thoughts, they will go away on their own and we will not be affected by them. But, if we pull some thoughts or observe them and accept them, then such thoughts cause good or bad to us.

Thus, each thought has its own strength and potency. Depending on the power of that thought, good or bad things happen to us. We have to consider the thoughts coming to our mind as the sounds coming from a piano. We should take only the sounds (thoughts) that we need and ignore those that are not needed. Then our mind will always be peaceful and calm.

If we sit at the entrance of our house and observe the people who walk across the road we may notice that a lot of people cross our house. But, they may not do good or bad to us. In this situation, if we call someone crossing our house and ask them, “Who are you? Where are you going?” then they will come near us, share their joy or sorrow with us and then go. We will feel good or bad after the encounter depending upon the person we call and the words we speak to them.

Similarly, the thoughts that we choose to ignore will not have any positive or negative effect on us. Only those thoughts that we call towards us will come and do good or bad to us and go. So, if we learn to ignore the thoughts which can harm us, our mind will always be peaceful and calm.

We can hear some of you say, “We already know that thoughts come to us and also that if we choose to ignore a thought it will not do any harm to us. You need not tell us all this. Our problem is that we are not able to ignore some of the thoughts.” We can understand this. What can we do if we are not able to ignore a thought that comes to our mind? Really, this is not a very big trick. This is a small matter which all of us can do. I will explain this through an example.

If we stand on the terrace of a hundred floor building and look down, we will get a thought in our mind. We will think that if we fall from here we will die. Do we really fall from there and die, breaking our head? What do we do with this thought? We just do not do anything about it, ignore it and leave it, don’t we?

Similarly, every husband, when he is tortured by his wife over phone, gets a thought that he should go home and slap her. Every wife, when she gets a cold response from her husband gets the thought that she should thrash him. What do we do with this thought? Can we implement these thoughts? You simply do not do anything about it and simply ignore it and leave it, don’t we? How are we able to manage this? Every worker may get a thought he should beat up his boss. Does he implement it or does he choose to ignore the thought? We can give several examples like these.

Thus, we choose to ignore the thoughts coming to our mind in several matters and leave them alone without any choice. By understanding this, if we ignore bad thoughts created by anger, tension, fear, etc. then we can keep our mind calm and peaceful.

Even if this may appear to be a little difficult to start with, if you sit alone and think, you will understand it by yourself. If you start it today and practice it for six months to one year, then you will not be affected by any bad thoughts and you will always be calm and peaceful.